1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for connecting an electric wire component, such as a wire harness, to an electronic device, such as an electronic control unit, and also relates to a connection structure using this connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, electrical connection between an electronic device mounted on a vehicle, such as an automobile, and an electronic wire component, such as a wire harness, is established through connectors that can be coupled to each other. FIG. 9 shows an example of a wiring arrangement using these connectors.
FIG. 9 illustrates an example of connection of an air bag control unit 70 A, which is an electronic device, to a power supply 40 and to a collision sensor 42 by using a wire harness 60. The wire harness 60 shown in this figure has three terminals at which the power supply 40, the collision sensor 42, and a connector 62A are provided, respectively. On the other hand, a connector 72A is provided on the air bag control unit 70A. This connector 72A is coupled to the connector 62A so that the air bag control unit 70A is connected to the power supply 40 and the collision sensor 42 through the wire harness 60.
In this circuit, electric power is supplied from the power supply 40 to the air bag control unit 70A. Further, a collision detection signal outputted from the collision sensor 42 is inputted to this air bag control unit 70A whereby a control signal is outputted from the air bag control unit 70A to an air bag device (not shown), so that the air bag device is activated.
Meanwhile, according to upgrading a vehicle and such like, there is sometimes the necessity for connecting a side air bag control unit 70B to the power supply 40 and the collision sensor 42 in such a circuit, in addition to the side air bag control unit 70. In such a case, conventionally, another wire serving as a branch line is branched from the wire harness 60, as indicated by a dashed line drawn in FIG. 9. A connector 62B other than the connector 62A is disposed at an end of the branch line and coupled to a connector 72B mounted on the side air bag control unit 70B.
The configuration illustrated in FIG. 9 has the following problems to be solved.
(1) When the side air bag control unit 70B is added to the circuit, the branch line branched from the wire harness 60 should be added. Moreover, the additional connector 62B other than the connector 62A should be provided at the end of this branch line. Therefore, a shape of the wire harness 60 is complicated. Moreover, the number of necessary connectors should be increased. Consequently, the number of components of an entire wiring system is increased. Furthermore, the branch line should be branched from a suitable position on a main line of the wire harness 60. Thus, it is not easy to manufacture the wire harness 60 itself.
(2) A plurality of connectors 62A and 62B should be connected to the control units 70A and 70B at different places, respectively. Such an operation is troublesome. Moreover, operations of managing connection of the each connector should be performed at a plurality of places, and are complicated.
In view of such circumstances, an object of the present invention is to eable efficient connection of a common electric wire component to a plurality of electronic devices by using a system of a simple configuration at little expense in time and effort.
To solve the aforementioned problems, the invention is an electronic device connecting connector for connecting a common electric wire component to a plurality of electronic devices, the electronic device connecting connector comprising a plurality of device-side connectors provided in the electronic devices, respectively and a wire-component-side connector provided at the electric wire component. This wire-component-side connector is integrated combination of a plurality of coupling portions able to couple to each of the device-side connectors.
Moreover, the invention is a structure for connecting a common electric wire component to each of the electronic devices by using this electronic device connecting connector. This structure comprises the device-side connectors, each of which is provided at each of the electronic devices, the wire-component-side connector provided at the electric wire component, and positioning member for fixing a relative position of each of the electronic devices so that a location of each of the coupling portions of this wire-component-side connector coincides with a location of the device-side connectors.
With the aforementioned configuration, the coupling portions of the wire-component-side connector can be simultaneously coupled to each of the device-side connectors by adjusting the relative position of each of the electronic devices provided with the device-side connector to a specific relative position (that is, a relative position where the location of each of the coupling portions of the wire-component-side connector coincides with the location of each of the device-side connectors) . This coupling enables the common connection between the electric wire component provided with the wire-component-side connector and each of the electronic devices. Thus, there is no necessity for increasing the number of wire-component-side connectors and branching the wire component into many branch lines. Moreover, the connection between the electric wire component and each of the electronic devices can be established by once performing a connector connecting operation. Furthermore, the management of all of such connections can be performed at a place.
Incidentally, when the number of components of this wire-component-side connector itself can be reduced by forming a plurality of coupling portions to be integrated with a housing of the wire-component-side connector, the configuration of the connector can be simplified.
Preferably, the positioning member for positioning the plurality of electronic devices has, for example, a case for holding the plurality of electronic devices at predetermined positions. The case is configured so that during the plurality of electronic devices are held at the predetermined positions in this case, the location of each of the coupling portions of this wire-component-side connector coincides with the location of each of the device-side connectors. With this configuration, each of the electronic devices can be stably held at an appropriate position (that is, a position where each of the device-side connectors can be coupled to each of the wire-component-side connector) . Thus, the appropriate placement of the electronic devices is achieved only by setting the electronic devices in the case.
Further, the positioning member may have positioning portions able to engage with the plurality of electronic devices. Moreover, each of the electronic devices maybe fixed at a relative position, at which the location of each of the device-side connectors coincides with the location of the coupling portions of the wire-component-side connector, by engaging the positioning portions with one another.
In this case, a recess portion serving as the positioning portion is provided in one of two electronic devices. Further, a convex portion serving as the positioning portion to be fitted into the recess portion is provided in the other of the two electronic devices. Moreover, a bolt insertion hole is provided in the wire-component-side connector. A screw hole is provided in this bolt insertion hole. The bolt inserted into this bolt insertion hole is screwed into the screw hole to thereby tighten the wire-component-side connector and the device-side connector provided on each of the electronic devices together securely. Thus, the positioning convex portion is effectively utilized, so that a space, in which the screw hole is provided, can be ensured in the electronic devices. Furthermore, a sufficient fitting force for connecting the device-side connectors to the wire-component-side connector can be ensured by screwing the bolt into this screw hole.
Furthermore, the structure may be configured so that while the convex portion is fitted into the recess portion, the device-side connectors of both the electronic devices are disposed at positions, between which the screw hole is provided, and that the bolt insertion hole is provided between both the coupling portions of the wire-component-side connector. Thus, a bolt tightening force can be uniformly exerted on both device-side connectors (or both the coupling portions thereof) to thereby realize well-balanced coupling. Consequently, an occurrence of twisting of the connectors can be more reliably prevented.